National Membership Controversy

. . [w]e urge you to review your policies and practices in this regard, and open your rank and file to women now, so that this is not an issue when the tournament is staged next year" (Logan 1). capital of Maine National's response came on July 9 from chairman Hootie Johnson in the form of a debate released to the media, in which he asserted that "[t]here may well make it a day when women will be invited to join our membership, moreover that timetable will be ours and not at the point of a bay unmatchablet. . . .We will not be bullied, threatened or intimidate" (Logan 1). Johnson rested his freedom to decide if and when a cleaning woman could incessantly gain capital of Maine membership on the club's First Amendment right field to train its own membership. Moreover, he noted that associations such as the Girl Scouts and the Ladies' Professional Golf Association (LPGA) are single-sex, as are many women's colleges and clubs (Logan 1).

The first Masters tournament was vie at Augusta National in 1934. Today, the tournament is one of the most lucrative and highest-rated golf sports level offts of the year, capturing an audience of 40.1 million pile in 2002 (Chambers). The tournament is held ever year at Augusta National Golf and Country Club in Augusta, Georgia, whose all-male membership is a

Saporta, Maria. "The 67th Masters: Member view Too Precious to Risk on Women Issue." The Atlanta journal - Constitution, 12 Apr. 2003. E7.

There is no question of Augusta National's substance in the U.S.'s corporate landscape. But the club has also served as a meeting place for important political officials as well. For example, in "The Masters: Golf, Money, and Power in Augusta, Georgia," golf writer Curt Sampson reviewed oral history interviews with Augusta National co-founder Charles de Clifford Roberts younger and found an instance where Roberts noted helping President Dwight Eisenhower with "woman trouble" surrounding an alleged mistress. In addition, club light says that President Ronald Reagan and Secretary of State George Shultz conceived the Grenada invasion while golf at Augusta (Stuever C1).

Nonetheless, women's groups are correct to argue that the dissension over Augusta's membership policy is not just nigh allowing women to join men "in a few come across clubs" (Maloney A19). Rather, the issue is fundamentally about "achieving the American ideal of an even playing field in which merit and endowment fund determine success, not sex or race" (Maloney A19). Membership policies such as Augusta's violate the spirit of equal competition, in which every person has access to the same opportunities and relies on his or her talent to realize the potential those opportunities provide. A male member of Augusta National has that much more of a "leg up" when he can conduct business in Augusta's magic and impressive clubhouse and perhaps "seal the deal" as Reagan and Schultz did not too long ago. As Congresswoman Maloney stated, the mixture of discrimination practiced by Augusta National perpetuates the injustices of the chalk ceiling and the wage gap between men and women by limiting opportunities for women.

The failure of Burk's protest to catch fire with the humankind suggests that many people, at some level, sympathize with the right of privy individuals to disc
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